Building a wood project usually starts with finding a woodworking plan. Sure, plans can help, but they ume a lot from readers—often leaving out critical steps in the building process that more experienced builders no longer need.
How to Build Anything fills in the missing pieces that woodworking plans and blueprints leave out, including:
Of all the power tools you might be tempted to buy at a place like Home Depot, only three are really necessary for getting started in building wood projects – a circular saw, a drill/driver, and a jigsaw. I’ll take an inside look at each tool – with how-to tips and tricks that instruction manuals leave out.
Shopping for lumber can be intimidating. That’s because most home centers, ironically, cater to professional contractors, not project builders like us. In this series on buying lumber, I’ll uncover which boards are best suited for small projects, how to sort the good from the bad, and the best way to get boards off the shelf and home safely.
The tricky part about building a wood project is getting all the different steps of construction done in the right order. In this series, I’ve narrowed the process down to three, bite-sized chunks of construction know-how— which works for just about any type of project you’ll ever build.
Soon you’ll discover that the inner structure of nearly all wood projects is based on just three basic forms—a solid wood box, a carc , and a frame. In this series, I’ll show you step-by-step how to build all three, with my favorite shop tips & tricks along the way.
There’s nothing more frustrating than a stubborn wood screw. In this series I’ll explore the most common problems driving screws—and my favorite solutions. Keep in mind that most problems related to driving screws have nothing to do with the screw or the driver, but everything to do with the pilot hole. I’ll show you how to make pilot holes fastener-friendly—avoiding stripped heads, stalled screws, and loose threads.
Pine is great for building simple wood projects. It’s super cheap, easy to find, and easy to cut. However, getting a nice finish on pine is a different story. Pine is notorious for leaving streaks and blotches when stained, and stubbornly letting knots and defects show through several coats of paint. These problems shouldn’t stop you from getting a nice finish, though. With the right preparation, pine can take on a beautiful, high-quality finish that will last for generations.
Most of us know that drilling a pilot hole first is the best way to make sure fasteners go where we want them to go. But the location of that hole can be just as important as the hole itself. If it’s not in the right place, you can easily ruin a project by splitting the fragile edges of the boards you’re trying to join.
Most builders agree that the best way to cut plywood is with a circular saw. That’s because plywood panels are difficult to move around on stationery tools (like a table saw), and are just simply easier to cut with a portable tool (like a circular saw). You can buy a commercial cutting guide for several hundred dollars—or build your own for less than 20 bucks. In this series, I’ll show you step-by-step how to make your own cutting guide—using tools and materials you already have in your shop.
Of course, we all want to be safe in the shop. The problem is that it’s way too easy to ignore all the hazards lurking there —mostly because we’re impatient, stubborn, or just too tired to recognize a dangerous situation. These letter-size shop posters can be just the reminder we need—to stop, think, and take a few precautions to prevent injuries.
Do you have an ever-growing scrap board pile in your shop? At one time my scrap pile literally took over the shop, leaving me almost no room to work. Obviously I was over-estimating the amount of lumber I should buy (just to be safe, I reasoned). That’s when I decided to come up with a better way to estimate how many boards I really need for a given project.
I know it’s easy to get overwhelmed when learning something new. Woodworking can be especially confusing because it’s an age-old craft that’s dominated by experienced builders—people who almost know the subject too well to be good teachers. In How to Build Anything, I make no umptions about what you do or don’t know about working with wood. I use clear, concise language (no woodworking jargon allowed!) throughout the entire building process—from buying your first set of power… 
Home